Ahmedabad, 13 July 2012

Gujarat High Court today directed the state government that services of IPS officer Satish Verma be made available to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), probing the 2003 Ishrat Jahan encounter case.

“Government will spare the services of Satish Verma, as required by the CBI for 4 months or till the investigation is over, whichever is earlier,” the division bench of Justice Jayant Patel and Justice Abhilasha Kumari said in its order.

Satish Verma is not in good terms with the present government in Gujarat. The state government has ordered probe to look into the enouters done by Verma in past.

The Central Bureau of Investigation is reported to had sought the assistance of Gujarat cadre IPS officer Satish Verma in the investigation into the Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case. CBI had written to the Chief Secretary requesting him to spare Mr. Verma and depute him in the Ishrat Jahan case with the CBI for at least six months.

The CBI request was in keeping with the Gujarat High Court order, which while handing over the investigation to the CBI in December last year, had directed the State government to spare Mr. Verma’s services whenever required.

The encounter happened eight years ago on June 15, 2004, on the outskirts of Ahmedabad killing the Mumbra (Mumbai)-based college girl and three others, including a Hindu convert Pranesh Pillai alias Javed Sheikh.

Mr. Verma was a member of the three-member Special Investigation Team appointed earlier by the High Court, which had come to the conclusion that the encounter was fake. The SIT, however, did not agree to probe the case further on various grounds and requested the High Court to hand it over to the CBI.

The IPS officer had also told the High Court that he suspected the involvement of some top police officers of the State in the fake encounter and sought permission to arrest them for further questioning. The scared police officers, including some IPS officers, had then petitioned the High Court to withdraw Mr. Verma from the case and hand over the investigation to the CBI. The petition, however, was withdrawn later.

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